Riverfront Park is open.

“Everything is ready to go,” South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour said. “The playground is ready to go for all the kids, the area’s been cleaned up and fixed. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, but I think everybody will be pleased with what we have.”

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen closed the park in December to repair a slide area on the south side of the park that damaged the riverbank, took out part of the park’s walking trail and threatened a portion of a play area. During the repairs, the play areas at the park were resurfaced with a rubber surface.

The board awarded a $324,347.70 contract to Central Asphalt of Vicksburg to repair the slide area and resurface the play areas. The cost of the work was split between the city and the Warren County Board of Supervisors, which jointly operate the park.

The park’s reopening was in part delayed because the contractor working on the playground equipment had to order a part to secure one of the apparatus.

“We lost a good bit of the bank,” assistant public works director Jeff Richardson said of the slide, “And the majority of the money was spent fixing and stabilizing the bank. We removed a bunch of the debris and dirt, removed the unstable material, fixed some drainage pipes put in some new dirt, packed it in and grassed it and reinstalled the fence.”

He said the Astroturf surface installed on the play areas about 16 years ago was removed and replaced by the new surface that is springy, cushioned and safer.

“It is much better than what we had,” he said.

The slide at the park was discovered in April 2015, and repairs began in December. Repairs were halted in January after oil believed left over from a former oil storage tank farm was discovered at the site forcing the project to be shut down for several months until the oil and the remnants of old slabs and retaining wall on site were removed.